With The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown supplants James Patterson (*) as king of what I call the “popcorn books” — books that work best when read straight through in as few sittings as possible, with no reflection on what’s come before as you plow ahead.  Whether you’ll like the book or not depends on how willing you are to do that, I guess.

(*) – Well, Brown supplants Patterson on a “quality of book” basis.  With Brown’s extended hiatus and Patterson’s co-author book factory pumping out 6 books a year, he’ll never catch him in quantity.

If you’ve read The DaVinci Code or Angels And Demons, then you can guess the outline of the plot — Robert Langdon is called to a famous landmark, something bad happens, and he’s forced into a race against time to solve ancient riddles, accompanied by a love interest.  The setting is Washington D.C. this time, and in a happy-enough change of pace, his love interest is actually age-appropriate.

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Books · Dan Brown · James Patterson · Popcorn Books · The Lost Symbol